On Tuesday morning, the male macaque, a member of an endangered species, snuck into a house on Huynh Tat Phat St. in Phu Thuan Ward to take some instant noodles and then smashed some bowls and dishes.
He then climbed onto the roof and jumped to nearby houses.
Informed by local residents, Nguyen Quang Hoang, deputy head of the Cu Chi Wildlife Rescue Station under the HCMC Forest Protection Department, rushed over.
Hoang spread some bread around to lure the animal down to a balcony on the first floor of one house, where he then shot it with a tranquilizer.
A ranger prepares to school a macaque with a tranquilizer in Ho Chi Minh City's District 7, February 14, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Dinh Van |
The monkey, which weighs about seven kilograms, has been stealing food and people's mobile phones in District 7 for over a week now, causing anxiety among the residents.
According to the HCMC Forest Protection Department, this species belongs to the long-tailed macaque, or crab-eating macaque family, a group listed as an endangered species in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement between governments.
The department said this species when hungry has a natural instinct to enter people's houses to search for food and attack people, especially children.
As the macaque wears a strap around his neck, it is assumed that he was an escaped domestic pet.
The tranquilizer lost effect after an hour and the monkey has been brought to the city’s wildlife rescue station.